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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Right you are...

The people of Botswana don't even rate a mention in the article, they're likely not going to see a single dime of the proceeds which will be in the many tens of millions of US$.

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Botswana is an upper-middle-income economy with a freer press and lower corruption than a number of European countries. Their level of corruption is slightly worse than that of France, and way better than most South or East European country (source: https://www.transparency.org/country/#BWA ; http://www.heritage.org/index/country/botswana).

Also, they are one of the largest producers of rough diamonds in the world, so a single stone may be a big deal for the company extracting it, but it means hardly anything to the country.

Africa has some insane level of corruption and poverty, but there are some exceptions (namely, Botswana and Mauritius).

Thank you for that information, that totally changed my view on the situation in Botswana. Reading up on Africa from time to time and I completely missed this.

That is great to hear, thank you for educating my stupid sarcastic ass.

The BBC article about this, mentions that the diamond industry has transformed Botswana into a 'middle-income' country.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-34867929

I think he was sarcastic :)

I think I got that.

The Botswana Government will get a 10% royalty.

How generous.

Its about what corporate taxes are many places. Why would it be different there?

Because it is value extracted, not value added, and because the receivers of the majority of that value are in a position to extract that value by virtue of having historically exploited Botswana. So the larger part of the value will be removed from the country rather than that it will become part of the local economy it will become part of our economy.

That could be, but for the jobs, transportation, development and taxes they pay, right? The benefit to Botswana is somewhat diminished by having the diamond shipped overseas. But lets be honest: there is no real industrial/commercial value to this diamond at all; it is simply a trophy.

Diamond mining is highly mechanized. There definitely are local workers but fortunately it is no longer as labor intensive as it used to be (that's bad because fewer jobs, but it is also good because those jobs were super dangerous and very low pay anyway).

Agreed that it is mostly a trophy.

Corporate taxes are separate. 10% is the royalty the Botswanan government charges for precious stones. Any taxes are on top of that.

Sounds about right for mineral rights. Oil and gas leases for the US pay a 12.5% royalty.

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